Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
by Kinley Ardal
Summary: <html><head></head>Zero knows the truth. In a sense, it set him free; but it has changed his life forever. Zero never knew fear before; now, he fears the night.</html>


_**Wrongs Darker than Death or Night**_

_a Megaman X short story_

X resisted the urge to take a deep breath before tapping the entry key on the door leading into the barracks for Special Unit 0. In ordinary circumstances, the place was known for a certain irreverence; the unit's Commander was a man known to care little about his command's tidiness or carousing, so long as they were fit for combat and obeyed orders without question. Unit Zero barracks were home to some of the loudest parties on the Maverick Hunter campus, ironic considering Zero's own reputation for a complete lack of social skills.

Today, however, the trepidation at entering the Hunters' most famous party animals barracks was not lighthearted and whimsical. X felt that he had walked into a desecrated crypt, and that as soon as he opened the door, he would be beset by wraiths from an ancient time.

The door opened with a cheerful chime that nearly bowled X over. The tension in his joints was unbearable, and though he stood alone in the courtyard outside the Zeroth barracks, he felt as though the eyes of every soul in the Hunters' complex were upon him. They probably were, via security camera. Not comforting.

Tentatively, he stepped into the barracks lobby, which was, although a bit untidy and perhaps dusty, in one piece, everything in its proper place... save for the meter-wide hole in wall just above the door leading to the central training hall. It was nothing impressive for a Reploid to blast through wood or concrete with a beam weapon, but this was a military building; every wall had been reinforced with three centimeters of corrugated ceratanium armor beneath the drywall, paint, and mortar, thicker than the armor that most Reploids walked around with in battle. Knowing the might of the man who'd (allegedly) ripped the building apart from the inside, X was willing to wager a year's pay that, if he were to hop up and look through the still-smoldering hole in the wall, he'd see a dozen similar holes in a trail leading to where the shot had originated. That thought was also not comforting. Idly he noted that Zero's shot had finally dissipated against the external armor of the barracks building, burning a hole nearly halfway through the twenty-centimeter external plating.

"X," a feminine voice resounded in his head, three parts terror, one part frustration, "this is, simply put, a bad idea, in fact the worst you have ever had, in a long line of completely out-of-this-world nonsensical thoughts."

X shrugged pointlessly, the motion's levity contrasting starkly with the dread tightening his chest. "Your own recommendation was, simply put, never going to happen, Alia. This is the only other option."

"I'd be terrified at your jocularity if I was not already scared out of my mind," Alia retorted. "It is entirely possible that you are walking into your own execution chamber. I know I do not need to give you a _threat assessment_ on your target. Or do I? I can give you the full rundown on this particular target, we know his capabilities _very well_."

X glanced around himself furtively, taking in his surroundings, analyzing possible threat vectors; though he denied the possibility out loud - had indeed argued vociferously (and in fact, with actual violence) with the other Unit Commanders about Zero's potential Maverick status, he found that his tactical subroutine believed it all too easily. X's tactical subroutine had always been quick to believe the worst about Zero, and it was unnerving to X. Reploids were not designed with gut feelings, as far as he knew; though he was not a Reploid himself, he considered himself as one, if only to lend weight to his crusade for Reploid rights. By that logic, he had not thought that he posessed a 'gut', which he had heretofore considered separate from intuition.

He had begun to doubt his intuition about his gut. The thought would have made him smirk if he was not so full of dread.

Aloud he replied, "No one knows Zero's combat abilities better than I do, Alia. I have fought with him for years, and I have fought against him once before. Believe me, Alia, when I say that I know exactly how dangerous he is."

"Then help me understand why you are walking in there alone." Alia hissed. "Signas hates the whole thing. The other Commanders hate it. The rank-and-file Hunters hate it. The Operators hate it. The _janitors_ hate it. Everyone is in an aimless furor all over the base. Cain is the only person not pacing or engaging in other nervous habits, and he's the only human in the entire complex. Do you understand me, X? The _robots _are panicking, and the _human_ is calm. Nothing about this makes sense."

"Don't refer to yourself as a robot, Alia," X said absently, concluding his scans of his immediate surroundings and walking towards the hopefully still functioning door beneath the smoking hole in the barracks wall. "You are so much more than a robot."

"Now is _not_ the time for philosophy class, X. I am literally begging you here, please walk _out_ of that building and bring the whole damned Seventeenth with you when you go back."

"I don't need the Seventeenth. I will be fine." X tapped the entry key on the door before him, frowning as it failed to respond. The power was not out in the building, though the lobby and, presumably, the rest of the building, were lit only by the tactical lighting systems. X hated the tactical lighting systems, and silently cursed whomever had decided that reducing visibility in a base-invasion scenario was a good idea. He made a note to speak to Signas about that after...

Well. He didn't know after _what_. Digging his powerful digits into the narrow depression where the sliding panels met in the doorway, he slowly forced the door open, little by little. After several seconds, the doors finally gave way entirely, slamming open with a wrenching metal shriek that, embarassingly enough for X, made him jump. Thankfully, no cameras seemed to be aimed at him, so he trudged along through the halls, torn between sheepishness and anxiety.

Alia had been silent for a long moment, and when she spoke again, as X marched down the hallway, eyes flicking back and forth unconsciously expecting attack, her voice was weak with fear, her words halting and uncertain. "X. Please. Sigma is fearsome. Doppler was frightening. Final Weapon was terrifying. Zero is so far beyond terrifying that I cannot even find a word to describe him. I've seen him in battle, X. The only analogy in my database that fits is what the humans call a demon. Please, _please_, I beg you by everything the world considers holy, do not go in there."

X's lips quirked into a lopsided grin. "If Zero is the most terrifying thing on this planet, then the world is a much safer place than I thought it to be. Zero is no demon, and he never will be. I trust him with my life, and what's more, Alia, I trust him with _all our lives_. I will be fine, Alia, please do not worry."

X had expected a biting riposte from the blonde Operator at that comment, but he heard only silence in reply. So much the better, he thought. Willing his tactical systems, still screaming vague warnings and portents of doom, he squared his shoulders and steeled his will as he came to rest before a scene of utter devastation.

Twisted metal and broken fragments of concrete lay scattered about the halls all the way to where he now stood, but it was nothing compared to what lay past the sundered doorway to the training hall. Overturned tables, wrecked computers, potted plants (presumably from someone's quarters), energy crystals, wrecked weapons, and countless more destroyed objects lay scattered about the multi-floored exercise room. At nearly five hundred feet square, the hall was suited for large-scale training exercises, and was equipped with a state-of-the-art holographic suite for ultra-realistic combat simulations, highly advanced equipment which now lay rent and shattered across the length and breadth of the facility. Everything that was bolted down had been uprooted and ripped in twain, everything that was not bolted down had been burnt, frozen, shocked, shattered and shot to pieces. Here and there across the massive room, electrical fires burned merrily, consuming everything combustible as ominous shadows danced along the walls in every direction, seemingly enjoying the devastation.

Of particular note were an even dozen sleep capsules, arranged in a makeshift pyramid in the center of the arena, all on fire. X began walking towards the burning stack of capsules, each weighing several tons on their own, each badly damaged by what looked like punches and kicks from a particularly powerful Reploid.

X skirted to one side of the conflagration as he reached the center of the arena, slowly, deliberately, taking particular care to make no motion which might be construed as aggressive. His tactical system's screams for him to arm his Buster and chamber a Charge Shot were grew increasingly insistent and shrill, peaking into a nearly unbearable cacophony as the sleek and deadly silhouette of Zero appeared beyond the flames. X's heart, sinking lower and lower as he had progressed through the building, leapt right into his throat as he beheld Zero's utterly blank, hollow expression, gazing listlessly into the fire.

X stood stock still, unable to find the right words to begin addressing his friend. Minutes ticked by as the two androids stood there, silent, Zero watching the flames, X unable to do anything but watch Zero. At length Zero spoke, not stirring nor averting his empty gaze from the flames, his voice soft and hollow.

"Thank you for coming, X."

_Well, that's a nice start, at least,_ X thought idly. In reply, he said, "You're welcome, of course... were you expecting me, in particular?"

"Not really," the tall red android replied listlessly. "I was expecting a cruise missile, to be perfectly honest."

X considered his words, and decided upon 'perfect honesty' as a good theme for the conversation. "If we're being honest, that was what everyone wanted to do. I had a devil of a time talking them out of it."

"Color me surprised that talk alone succeeded in changing their plans."

"It didn't," X replied. He tried to make it sound lighthearted, but there was really no way to avoid the conclusions that particular rejoinder advertised.

"Ah." Again Zero fell silent, his empty stare not following any particular tongues of flame, but rather simply soaking up the sight of the burning capsules. It seemed to X that it was a poignant moment for Zero, but for the life of him, he could not comprehend why.

"I murdered her, you know."

A bomb might as well have been dropped for all the effect it had on the nascent conversation around Zero's strange makeshift fireplace. X had been waiting for this talk for the full three days since the Final Weapon incident, but Zero had continually brushed him off every time X had attempted to corner his friend into opening up about what happened with Iris. His heart sank again, his mind awhirl in grief and pity. "It was not murder, Zero." He knew where this was going, and it wrenched his heart to be living through it.

"It was," his friend replied quietly. "The loss of Colonel devastated her. She was not a combat Reploid. She was to be the face of peace... the flip side of Colonel's military pragmatism. Fighting and killing a non-combat Reploid cannot be described as anything other than murder."

X did not move, nor did he avert his gaze. He willed his voice to be calm, steady, and reassuring. Strength was required now, his friend had none available to him, but X was not sure how to give his friend that strength, in part because his relationship with Iris was difficult to define by Reploid standards. "Your mission report stated clearly that Iris was utilizing a combat mech. Even a non-combat Reploid is a fearsome opponent in a ride armor, and Repliforce ride armors are in a class of their own."

"If she had a thousand ride armors and a host of tactical nukes besides, it would still have been murder," Zero said quietly. His soft-spoken self-recriminations privately scared the hell out of X, who had never seen Zero in such a state. "She was a peace-loving girl, and I slew her brother in combat. I wrecked him utterly. Completely. I ended up slicing him in two." He paused a moment, and said, in idle afterthought, "lucky shot, really. He slipped on a piece of debris at an inopportune moment... I hadn't intended to kill him, actually. It just sort of... happened."

"...You blame yourself for this. I understand that. I sympathize with it, Zero, I really do. But they forced your hand. They attacked _you_."

"No, X. _I_ attacked _Colonel_, and in so doing, I attacked _Iris_," Zero replied gravely. X was thrown by nothing so much as the complete lack of emotion in his voice. Doubt alone was foreign to Zero, but languor? His very antithesis. In the world of the Hunters, the name _Zero_ was an aphorism for zealousness and passion, and _fury_. "It was a crime of unforgivable stupidity. Sigma played his hand well, we fell right into his trap... and so perpetrated nothing less than genocide. We should have let them go. Who are we to stop an incipient Reploid separatist movement? We should have started one ourselves ages ago."

X shook his head in vehemence, choosing to not even address Zero's apparent acceptance of Reploid independence being an end goal of their quest for equal rights, and also to never mention it to anyone else as long as he lived. "We could not let Final Weapon remain in the hands of a dissident faction, Zero, regardless of the magnitude of any misunderstanding. And at the time," he plunged forward, cutting Zero off before the other could speak, "we had absolutely no idea that it was a ploy by Sigma. Dragoon and the others being double agents... to say nothing of Double himself," X ground out harshly.

Zero nodded sideways in a half-hearted gesture that would have infuriated X if he wasn't so completely baffled by the red android's behavior. "Admittedly, we did not know. I cannot even say that we should have known. It was very well done, in all honesty. That Sigma fooled not only the Hunters, but you and I in particular, is... galling."

X stared blankly at his friend and shook his head again. "He forced you into battling your friends, Zero. It is a terrible tragedy, a horrible crime, but-"

"What kind of man," Zero asked in a tone void of emotion, "kills the woman he loves?"

X stared at Zero in grave astonishment. Zero shrugged. "It does not even make sense, really. We are Androids, they are Reploids. It isn't as though we need to breed or anything. Reploids are built, not born. What purpose is there in pairing off? Are we even really gendered? I'm a man, by appearance, build, and tone, but I am a robot, when all is said and done. What makes me male? What makes her female?"

X struggled to follow the thread of the conversation, which was rapidly veering out of his realm of experience. "I... I don't know that I have an answer to that, Zero."

Zero shrugged. "Even so, it happened. I loved her. I loved her femininity. I loved her gentleness. I loved the way she loved furred rodents, felines, and canines, as well as every species of avian she ever encountered. Likely all the fish she ever saw, too. I loved the way she laughed, and how she could talk seemingly forever about every topic we ever breached, occupying all possible positions on said topics in complete self-contradiction, yet being fervent in all of them. Perhaps we were meant to come together, X, like two ends of a magnet." He closed his eyes briefly. "She loved... something about me. I honestly could not tell you what. Oppenheimer thought he was become Death. He hadn't seen my schematics, or he'd have toned down the superlatives." Zero tilted his head at a slight angle, off on a tangent of thought. "Perhaps it is this way no matter what you are, human or Reploid. Perhaps man and woman simply come together and fit as one." He smiled slightly. "You get along well with Alia, right?"

X no longer knew how to reply to anything Zero said, so he simply nodded in an affirmative.

"Hold on to that. If things go to hell one day, X, and she does something the powers that be don't approve of... don't let duty go before emotion. The world darkens a little every time some damned fool does that." His smile broadened just slightly, but it was not a happy one. "Damned fools committing crimes that they cannot make amends for, no matter how many enemies they fight, how long they live, or how sorry they are. The man fights for his woman, not against her."

X opened his mouth to counter the inanity of Zero's declaration, to espouse reason over emotionalism, but the argument died on his lips as be watched Zero's wistful smile fade away. He shook his head once more, rallying himself back to his original purpose. "Zero, please tell me why you wrecked the barracks. Your unit has been scared witless. They think you've gone Maverick."

Zero was silent for a moment, before shutting his eyes and emitting what X could only describe as a dejected sigh. As he opened his eyes and turned to look at X for the first time that evening, X was filled with the wholly irrational and utterly terrifying idea that the android looking into his eyes at that moment _did not have a soul_.

"Do you remember when Sigma found me? That day they brought me in for repairs?"

Despite himself, X nodded, going along with the topic. "I could never forget that day. Prior to then, Sigma had never sustained damage in any engagement he was in. Never so much as a scuff on his paint job. Then he ran into you, and he came back missing an arm, most of his armor, and half his face. Not many people know about it; I only knew because Cain and I worked together on every Reploid that came through his labs for repairs. No one, except perhaps Signas, knows what happened that day, and that only if Cain told him. Official records say that Sigma destroyed the Maverick that wiped out Gamma's unit, and that he recovered you on site."

Zero looked up at the roof to the arena, with X following his gaze. Starlight shone down through the many holes in the ceiling, burnt through by innumerable Buster shots. "I wrecked him pretty good that day. Never knew why he didn't destroy me after gaining the upper hand. Never was sure how he gained the upper hand, either. He's vastly inferior to me as a combat model."

X nodded in agreement. Zero had a well-deserved reputation for brusque analysis, which came off to the uninitiated as vanity when describing Zero's combat capabilities. X knew better; his friend was a logician, stating everything plainly as facts, figures, and statistics. "...I don't follow, Zero. Sigma has something to do with Iris? With this?" He motioned to the scarred and smoking hall around them.

"There was a screw-up in my conscious mind at the time. I'd been sleeping in a capsule, like you... but I was never fully asleep. I was stuck in something between sleep and wakefulness for what seemed like an eternity, and I think I went insane. Sigma was just the last victim I got ahold of before I recovered enough cognizance to be horrified at what had happened to me. He took advantage of my moment of distraction, clubbed me upside the head, and dragged me back to Cain's Lab for experimentation." Zero smirked. "You two, good as you were, weren't responsible for my sudden lapse back into sanity. I was... or rather, my creator."

Zero brought his gaze down to meet X's, and X again suppressed the screaming impulse to arm his weapons and put a dozen paces between himself and Zero. "...X, how many members of my unit have died in the past decade?"

X stiffened at the question, frustration at Zero's roundabout method of coming to his point warring with the feeling that something was _deeply, dangerously wrong about this situation_. "...That I know of, sixty-eight."

"Would you be surprised to know that I don't remember any of them?"

X did not reply for a moment. His face must have shown his confusion (and horror), because Zero sighed again and shook his head, shoulders sagging as he did so. X had no words to describe his abject shock at the motion, completely foreign to the perpetually confident, dauntless war machine that was Zero.

"I don't remember anyone that's died in the Hunters, or the Mavericks for that matter. I remember combat data only. Physical dimensions, armaments, armor, shielding, mobility, tactics... that is all. Nothing about personal characteristics, except insofar as it is useful to future engagements. Why my tactical systems keep data on dead targets would be a mystery if not for Sigma's perpetual resurrections, but yeah." Zero shrugged broadly. "What were those sixty-eight Hunters like? What were their names? What were their hobbies? Did we get along well? Did I like any of them? I don't remember. Their faces, their personas, their hopes and dreams... gone. Nothing of it remains in my mind."

X stared uncertainly at Zero. "...Nothing at all?"

"Nothing. Any of them. I could list to you, here and now, the hobbies and personal quirks of every man and woman in my Unit, and most of the other Units in the Hunters. I could tell you what Alia's hobbies are. I could tell you what kind of teacups Signas likes to collect. I could tell you how Cain regrets never getting married to that Korean woman he met in his college days, or how he thinks of us as his sons, more so than any of the Reploids he actually built." Zero tilted his head slightly, eyes going out of focus. "But if they died tonight or tomorrow, I can guarantee you that, the next time I fell asleep after their deaths, I'd forget all of that information overnight."

"Why?" X asked blankly. "This is clearly important to you, and so I am deeply invested in knowing the answer, but I also feel that this is leading up to a statement of why you ripped your barracks apart and sent your Unit screaming for cover."

Zero was silent for a moment. Slowly, as unthreatening as he could, he lifted an arm up and pointed a finger at X, his arm straight as an arrow. X willed his arms to stay at his sides, his hands twitching as his Busters tried to arm themselves against his will.

"You, X, are the last, greatest creation of a creator that loved you. Though you excel at combat, indeed, you are the greatest combatant the world has ever known... you do not have to be a warrior. You could be an architect. You could be an engineer. You could be a writer, or a musician. You do not even have to wear your armor, it can be disengaged from you. You could wear human clothing if you so desired, and appear as one of them in form, if not in function. You could be anything you like. As a human is, you are potentially infinite, perhaps more so."

X shook his head. "This is relevant how..."

Zero's arm jerked back, making X take a step back in alarm, Zero's hand formed into a fist, jabbing his thumb into his heavily armored chest. "My creator hated me." The bitterness in Zero's voice made X cringe. "My armor is not extraneous plating. I can no more remove my armor than a human can remove their epidermis. My mind is designed only for battle. I cannot write. I cannot create. I am built solely for destruction, and I excel at it to the point of atrophy in all skills not related to war and death. I am a war machine, and nothing else, as Vile was. As Sigma is. As he made himself to be." Zero shook his head angrily, and X saw coals of fire burning in Zero's eyes when he resumed looking at X. "He chose to be that, though. Vile was designed thus... as I am."

"That's nothing but dross, Zero." X said forcefully. "You are an android with free will. You could be anything you decide to be. How could you ever doubt that? I know you have hobbies, though you try to hide them, and don't dabble in them often. I've seen you take up a paintbrush and set to work at a canvas. Your technical proficiency is remarkable, and the scenes you drew are beautiful and moving. You gave one of them to me, a picture of the Zen gardens in Kyoto at sunset. It hangs opposite from my capsule in my quarters."

"I know. I've seen it several times, and I hate it with all my heart, X."

"Why?!" X demanded, forgetting the reason he had come to the hall in his alarm at his friend's dismaying revelations. "Why would you hate such beauty and soul?!"

Zero's eyes narrowed, and whatever he was glaring at, it wasn't X. "I cannot remember why I drew it. I also don't remember how I drew it." X stared blankly at the red android, not knowing what to say. Zero turned away angrily and began pacing, a torrent of angry words spilling from his mouth as he began to rant.

"I cannot remember one damned thing aside from battle techniques, current and potential targets in the line of my duties as a Hunter, and currently living acquaintances in my immediate social circle. Everything else is a blank. Prior to tonight, I never knew why, but I do now. Every time I go to sleep, X, my mind is wiped of all..." and an ugly sneer crossed Zero's face, marring his normally handsome features into something vile and bitter, "_superfluous information_. I wake up, and anything and everything that does not pertain to me cutting robots and Reploids apart has been discarded like so much refuse, leaving only a the pristine fighting machine to remain. That painting you love? Useless data. Takes up processor time better spent on further mastery of a beam saber. The century I spent suffering in waking suspended animation? Pointless weakness. Erased... though I'm grateful for not remembering that."

X struggled to process the revelation. "...You forget everything? A memory leak, perhaps?"

Zero barked a derisive laugh. "If only it were so innocent. No, X, it's by design. It is the will of my creator, the twisted old bastard that built me to be an engine of death, and nothing else. A God of Destruction, if you will." Zero's right boot flashed out in his anger, kicking a half-ton fragment of a support pylon a solid ten meters through the air and out of his angry path. "I can draw and paint, sure, but only so long as I stay awake for days on end, practicing ceaselessly until I achieve the _technical proficiency_ to put to paper what I see in my mind. Not only do I forget the skills I pick up, I forget the thoughts and emotions that galvanized me to create in the first place. Do you not see it, X? The ugly truth? _I am forbidden to create_. I may only maim and kill. That is all that is permitted me." Zero made a sound in his throat that sounded akin to illness in a human, as though he were reviled at his own being.

"Wouldn't... wouldn't you have realized this long ago?" X asked helplessly, straining to find a reason behind his friend's misfortunes, if indeed they could be called misfortunes. "You've been operational for at least a decade, probably longer. Surely this would be something you'd notice about yourself before years pass."

"That's the thing, X. I am certain that I _have_ figured this out before. Even knowing the truth about myself is disallowed. I fall asleep, and forget what I have learned, remembering only that I am Zero, and that I am 'a masterpiece'." Zero sneered again; X was certain he would have spat upon the ground if he could produce saliva. "Sigma revealed all this to me at Final Weapon, after I murdered Iris. I was in a rage... I ripped General apart in self-loathing, and only stopped because I sensed that Sigma was near, and that I'd rather vent my hate at him. He reminded me of everything that I'd done before... that I'd been through... he even taunted me about it as he died again, saying that I'd be back to normal in no time - that he had it on good authority from _my maker_. I had no idea what he meant, but I'm not a total idiot. I gave it a lot of thought. I noticed massive gaps in my data that should not be there, that I was superficially aware of but never really thought about because my subconscious mind knew that awareness of the erasures was detrimental to my... _performance_."

X turned away and stared into space, pacing halfheartedly as his mind raced. "...So this is directly related to why you went on a rampage. You were..." X whirled around, eyes widening. "You realized you were forgetting something as you slept."

Zero's gaze was far from hollow now as he turned to stare into the blazing inferno that consumed the sleep pods before him. "I saw her, X. I swear to the humans' God, I saw her in my sleep. Her face was rent in two... her... her vital fluids just _gushing out_, her eyes gouged out but full of tears, and she asked me not to forget her." Zero shut his eyes tightly, his face the perfect picture of Hell's fury. "I screamed. I killed her, yes, but I did not inflict those wounds. Those were done in cruelty... sadism is foreign to me, or at least, to the me talking right now. She asked me to not forget what she'd meant to me, and by Heaven, X, before my very eyes she disappeared into a miasma of pitch-black shadow and all I could see was the bastard who crafted me to be his Deathbringer laughing beyond the darkness."

X stared bleakly at Zero as the red android fell to his knees and clutched his armored head as though his mind might well explode, if he did not hold it in place. He said nothing, but waited for Zero to continue, which he did after a few moments of labored gasps for wholly unnecessary air. "When I came to, I'd punched right through my capsule and torn it out of the wall. My quarters were on fire and I was in a daze, not knowing why I'd woken up. I stumbled into my desk, and..."

Zero looked at the ground before the pyramid of capsules, where a small datapad lay. "I wrote myself a note. I don't remember writing it. I wrote a bloody novel, X, detailing everything about her, every conversation I'd had with her, every silly, stupid comment I'd made that made her laugh, every argument we'd have about life, philosophy, the humans, the war, everything. Everything I ever knew about her is written in that pad, X, and..." and at that, he raised his gaze to look at X, and again X felt the chill he had before, looking into those soulless eyes, "I have forgotten almost all of it, X. I barely remember her voice. I no longer remember her face, except for that torment I saw in my nightmare. I know, for a fact, that I loved her... but I do not know why anymore." He looked at the ceiling again, and his voice was weak as he let his arms fall limply to his side. "And I know my creator hated me, because I do not even have tear ducts, as your creator made for you. I want to cry, and I do not have any tears to shed."

X was a gentle soul by nature, empathic as few people were, and the simple agony of Zero's final statement was very nearly too much for him to bear. He physically reeled from Zero, aghast at the torment of the other android's existence, and he wiped bitterly at the tears that stung his eyes, springing to life seemingly in mockery of Zero's lament. The silence stretched between them for a solid three minutes, X's muffled weeping and Zero's silent agony.

"And so, I... kind of went nuts, I guess," Zero said at last, falling into something resembling a sitting position, his chin falling to his chest. "I didn't kill or maim anyone. I don't want to hurt or alarm my comrades, I just..." he shrugged again. "I don't know how to deal with this. I am not emotionally equipped to handle a scenario like this, X."

X was silent for a time, deeply moved. "I don't think anyone is equipped for something like this, Zero," he said thickly.

The red android chuckled mirthlessly. "I suppose not. It isn't something a normal person would conceive of, after all..." Zero fell silent again, and then asked, out of nowhere, "Do you trust me, X?"

That required no thought at all, his tactical subroutines be damned. "Yes. With my life, with all our lives." His words rang true, no trace of doubt in his voice.

"I'm glad," Zero replied. "It means the world to me, X. It really does." He seemed to steel himself for the worst revelation yet, and X found himself wanting to slink away before Zero had the chance to put to words his last horror. "Your trust makes it possible for me to tell you something about myself... and to ask for your help."

"...Of course." X said simply. He had no idea what else to say. Whatever was needed, if it was within X's power, he would do. If it was not in X's power, he would seek power until it was. He would also kill Sigma, _forever_. He'd redouble his efforts to find a way to terminate him permanently.

Zero looked at the ground. "I don't know why I was built. I suspect... but do not know for sure. I won't say that until I am sure, and if it is what I suspect... you have to promise to do whatever you have to in order to keep me from fulfilling my function."

"You say that as though you do not trust yourself, Zero," X said, hating himself for the shakiness in his voice.

Zero looked up at X, a glint in his eye that X could not read, and it made whatever his android's equivalent of a soul was freeze in deathly cold. "I don't, X. I said before that you are the greatest creation of Doctor Light, the greatest roboticist of all time; I am very nearly your equal. Better specs, yet you walked out the winner when we battled in the Second War - therefore, my creator was on par with Light's skill. We're both over a century old, so built sometime in 20XX... There was only one other roboticist of that era that rivalled Light, and X... it wasn't Cossack."

Though it made no sense, though it was simply physically impossible in a building as structurally sound and walled off as the one they stood in, X felt a cold wind blow through the arena, and indeed saw the flaming mountain before Zero lean away from Zero in response to the gale, as though the unthinking, insensate, unliving tongues of fire were themselves recoiling from Zero.

"...I think..." X faltered, but Zero turned to pierce him with a sudden sharp gaze. "You knew, didn't you?" Zero said softly, his arms hanging limply at his sides. "You knew, or at least suspected. I suppose it's natural... you are an accomplished roboticist in your own right."

X shook his head weakly. "Not consciously, no..." X shrugged weakly. "I didn't want to believe that Wily was capable of building an android as advanced as you. I'd hoped that Light was far enough ahead of him to..." he stopped himself, but Zero caught the meaning before X thought far enough to cease speaking.

"You'd hoped that Wily could never build something strong enough to be a threat to the world with you defending it," Zero stated flatly, no trace of emotion in his tone. "You'd hoped that Wily would not be capable of building a weapon capable of contending with the exponential leap in power you represented, because the death toll in a supra-Reploid Wily War would be exponentially higher to match the increase in combat potential."

"I'd hope the same thing, if I had been you," Zero murmured, gazing at his hands, his mind clearly elsewhere. "Even now, I wish that was the case, and that I had not been built." He shook his head vigorously.

X's shoulders slumped, and he nodded in assent at his friend's analysis. "My tactical systems go into overdrive around you when you are angry, Zero. I've never really understood why... I think something about my design recognizes you as a Wily machine." He hated himself for the revelation, and had no idea why he'd said it. Zero didn't need the burden, but he felt that withholding it would have been a deceit, and his mind rebelled at lying to his best friend.

Zero considered X's words for a moment, and lifted his head to look X directly in the eye. "The favor I wished to ask of you." Zero's expression was unreadable.

"Anything." X said instantly.

"I can never sleep again," Zero said, hauling himself to his feet. X nodded, having expected the coming request. "A way must be found to help me defragment my mind and rest without reverting to the sleep state." A pained expression creased his face. "I cannot do this for myself. I cannot create... only destroy."

"I'll take care of it," X said softly. "I can think of several ways to do it, and at least one that can be done relatively quickly. It should be available for you within thirty-six hours."

Zero nodded in glum acceptance. "Thank you, X. I'll... remain here. I'll leave the explanation for the others to you, if you wouldn't mind. I'm..." Zero glanced around himself sadly. "This little tantrum of mine was ill-advised. I hadn't recharged since Final Weapon, and I'm very low on energy... I cannot risk going into auto-sleep mode." X had no need to ask why he feared that possibility. "I'll just... sit here, and conserve energy. I don't want to press you, X, but every moment counts at this point. Please give it everything you've got." Zero knelt before the burning capsules again, his eyes unfocused, his breathing shallow and ragged. "I don't want to forget anything else."

X found he had no words to comfort Zero with, and so, after a moment of grieving, he choked back his sorrow, and turned to begin work on the new recharge systems for Zero. Abruptly, Zero called out to him, making him turn halfway to face his friend.

"X?" A brief pause, as though he was embarrassed to even make the request. "...please don't tell anyone about Wily."

"...of course," X said simply. No one would understand. They would see only a threat, and that neither X nor Zero would be able to mount any kind of adequate defense against such a view would serve only to panic the Hunters to frenzy. X's gaze hardened, his eyes turning to sparkling veridian flint. He lifted his head and stared at Zero with a sudden fire in his heart. "I'll find a way to fix this, Zero. You won't have to live with this nightmare forever."

Looking into his friend's determined face, Zero tried to smile, but found that he could not. He turned back to looking at the fire, cradling his memories of Iris, slain by his own hand, in the same hand that took her life. "There are worse things to fear than nightmares."

_**~Fin~**_

_**"To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;/To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;/To defy power which seems omnipotent;/To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates/From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;/Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;/This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be/Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;/This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory."**_

The title and poem excerpt are from Prometheus Unbound, which I have never read, but learned about through Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Around that title this entire story was written.

...I was driving home from delivering a Wii to my parents' house, told them I had purchased the Megaman and Megaman X collections off of E-Bay to add to the pile of games they had requested; they loved Megaman when my brother and I were but small gamers, and so we had a steady diet of Mega Buster action all throughout the nineties and ... tens? zeroes? of the 21st century. This story popped into my head, one of a couple dozen I've thought of for the X/Zero series in the last decade, but the idea for this was so strong that I simply could not help but go straight to my laptop and write it down. ( O.o) I knew it'd be long for a oneshot but I simply had to do it.

Started: 5:57 CST

Complete: 11:15 CST

Quality: I usually dislike my own writing, but I like this ficlet. Privately, the very idea of this story horrifies me. I hope that you, the reader, find it thought-provoking, or at least entertaining.

Special thanks to Penglaive for her story _As Good As You Get, _ s/8851225/1/As-Good-As-You-Get O.o Her interpretation of Zero's origins have stuck in my mind ever since I read that story.


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